Beer garden, pop-up shops and other attractions coming to State Street this weekend

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A group of urban planners will revive a tired stretch of State Street SE this weekend in hopes of generating a new vision for the gateway between Heritage Hill and downtown Grand Rapids.

With more than 3,000 visitors walking through the neighborhood this weekend, they hope to gauge the public’s reaction to “pop-up shops” and attractions they plan to install along the street, whose history dates backs to the pre-urban days, when it served as a trail for Native Americans.

“We want it to feel like it sprang up organically,” said Tyler Doornbos, one of event planners.

“Right now, it’s a pass-through,” said Lynee Wells, an urban planner and project manager for Williams and Works.

“We’re hoping for the neighborhood to gain a sense of empowerment – that they can make a change on this block,” said Josh Leffingwell, one of the planners. “We also want to hear a lot of their ideas.”

The attractions will include a beer garden in a parking lot, food vending trucks, a temporary two-way bike lane, a bicycle tune-up center, a t-shirt printer and Parisian-style bouquinistes vending boxes for small-scale retailers.

In the old Grand Rapids Public Museum, they will be showing movies in a 50-seat theatre they’ve set up in the lobby. The $3 features will include The Muppets Movie, Cabin in the Woods and Moonrise Kingdom. Beer, wine and sodas will be available.

The kid-friendly event also will include a pop-up playground in Foster Park, a free book exchange in a bus stop shelter, and a display about the history of State Street at the Caulkins Law Office.

To fill in some of the gaps and parking lots, used shipping containers will be set in parking lots to support some of the displays and pop-up retailers.